Hull lieutenant looks back at bombing response with pride, sadness

A photograph pinned to the wall of Dale Shea’s office shows the veteran Hull police lieutenant looking haggard and grumpy, a cell phone to his ear and one leg propped on his motorcycle. In another, a Black Hawk helicopter hovers above a Watertown parking lot, not far from where one of the the suspected marathon bombers was found hiding in a boat.

By Neal Simpson

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

By Neal Simpson

Posted Jul. 24, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jul 24, 2013 at 1:10 AM

By Neal Simpson

Posted Jul. 24, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jul 24, 2013 at 1:10 AM

HULL

» Social News

A photograph pinned to the wall of Dale Shea’s office shows the veteran Hull police lieutenant looking haggard and grumpy, a cell phone to his ear and one leg propped on his motorcycle.

In another, a Black Hawk helicopter hovers above a Watertown parking lot, not far from where one of the the suspected marathon bombers was found hiding in a boat.

They are photos from the week when he and hundreds of other police officers were called into Boston to help with the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings. They remind him of the pride he felt to be part of the response to the first terrorism attack on U.S. soil since 9/11. But they are also reminders of the loss he feels for a friend and fellow officer gunned down by the suspected terrorists.

Nearly 100 days after the bombing, Lt. Dale Shea recalled how he experienced that week.

Monday

Shea, a 25 year veteran of the Hull Police Department, was working in his office on April 15 when he got a text message from his son shortly before 3 p.m. telling him that something was happening in Boston. He headed down the hall to the department’s dispatch room, where a TV showed a chaotic, bloody scene where runners were supposed to be crossing the finish line.

His first thought was for his daughter, 21, a nurse assistant at Massachusetts General Hospital. He wasn’t doing anything until he knew she was safe.

Shea made sure his daughter had a safe way home, called someone to cover his shift in Hull, then headed out on his motorcycle to join other members of the Mobile Operations Unit, a motorcycle unit of the Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council that can include up to 50 officers from police departments around the region.

By 5:30 p.m., Shea had been assigned to a post at the Boston Harbor Hotel, one of many buildings across the city identified as potential targets in the chaotic hours after the bombing.

“They didn’t know what else to expect and everybody thought something else was going to happen,” Shea said. “I guess if the terrorists had their way, there were going to be more bombings.”

Shea was supposed to end his shift later that night, but with his adrenaline pumping and a growing need to do something, he and his partner decided they couldn’t go home. As a panicked city went reluctantly to sleep, Shea stayed and guarded the hotel.

Tuesday

Around 6 a.m., Shea left the hotel and headed to the Boston Common, where his unit gathered before heading off on different assignments. On that morning, he was assigned to nearby Charles Street, where he helped keep the road clear for the growing encampment of news organizations that had descended on the city from around the world.

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It had been less than 24 hours since the bombs ripped through the crowds at the finish line, but Shea said people were already coming up to him on the streets to thank him.

“It was really nice and came in really handy,” he said. “Just when you were thinking, ‘Oh man, I could use something to eat,’ somebody would come by with a sandwich.”

Wednesday and Thursday

The next two days were a blur for Shea as he and his unit sped around the city, patrolling hospital and government buildings, escorting SWAT teams to various assignments and standing guard where needed. Assignments took them through narrow alleyways, behind buildings and across public parks to search for potential threats.

“Motorcycles can get a lot of places where cars can’t,” he said. “We can cover a lot more ground, and especially where we’re in groups of six or eight or 10, that’s 10 sets of eyes.”

While most residents spent the week glued to the TV or Internet, Shea relied on word-of-mouth among law enforcement friends to stay on top of developments. But even with inside information, he went to bed Thursday night without knowing that an MIT police officer had been shot to death while sitting in his cruiser.

Friday

Shea woke and noticed his wife watching the TV intently as he left the house. He was gathering with other members of the motorcycle unit at the Boston Commons when his wife sent him a text message saying that an MIT police officer named Sean Collier had been killed by the men suspected of planting the bombs at the marathon. Another text from a captain at the Hull Police Department asked if it was the same Sean Collier that had worked there for two summers as a seasonal police officer.

When the captain sent over a photo of the slain officer, Shea knew immediately that it was.

Collier had been among a group of 20 aspiring police officer who had come to the beach town to help with traffic enforcement and other police work. But Collier stood out because of his enthusiasm for the job. He stayed in touch with Shea for years after he left to pursue full time police work in Somerville.

. “I have no doubt he would have succeeded in Somerville or anywhere else he went to,” Shea said.

But on Friday morning, Shea didn’t have much time to dwell on the loss of a young officer. The men suspected of ambushing Collier had been chased into Watertown, where one suspect had been killed and another disappeared, prompting police to set up a massive perimeter around the neighborhood and begin searching house by house.

Shea’s unit was brought to Watertown to help with the search, sent to other assignments, then called back to Watertown to escort a SWAT team into the search zone.

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“For probably a mile, the street were lined with people, like it was New Years Eve,” he said. “We got to the Watertown Mall, and there were helicopters flying overhead and camera crews everywhere.”

Later, Shea, exhausted, headed home for the night. Before he went to bed, he heard that the surviving bombing suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, had been found hiding out in a boat in Watertown and taken into custody alive.

“I remember thinking that it worked, that we had enough people to keep him from finding a way out of there,” he said.